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India cancels $500 Million anti-tank missiles deal with Israel

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A top Israeli arms firm has confirmed that India cancelled a $500 million deal to develop Spike anti-tank guided missiles and expressed “regret” over the decision just ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first visit to the country.

Israel’s state-owned defence contractor Rafael Advanced Defence Systems has announced that India has cancelled a $500 million deal to buy 1,600 Spike anti-tank guided missiles from Israel, 

India’s move to withdraw from the deal, which was seen to symbolise strengthening ties between two countries, came around the same time that Defence Ministry cleared a 131 Barak surface -to-air missiles from Rafael for $70 million, or 460 crores. The Barak missiles are to be used for India’s first aircraft carrier, “as an anti-missile defence system against anti-ship missiles,” said the ministry”.

“Rafael regrets the decision and remains committed to cooperating with the Indian Ministry of Defence and to its strategy of continuing to work in India, an important market, as it has for more than two decades, to provide India with the most advanced and innovative systems,” the company said.

 

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